Ratios

I also agree with TTDA's post....short term touring on a CAMC site is mightily expensive for what many MH make use of...

while we don't often take the van off site in the UK, we do cycle most days and to call in at a site (any site) and be asked for £35-45 for a days parking isn't VFM.

we park, we remove two chairs from the garage, perhaps have a coffee and then we're off....we return, we load the bikes and chairs into the garage and we might be away next morning...

we take up one third of the space on a pitch that most caravanners seem to require...we don't do any banging or hammering for awnings, windbreaks, dog corrals etc...we don't have a car/caravan/awning...we only need a small pitch.

For those who stay for weeks and make use of the facilities (we may not even do that on a short stopper) it could be said they were getting better 'value' but even a pitch and a shower still seems expensive.

If sites offered small, cheap pitches for one/two night stayers I might be (a little bit) more interested.

some sites do offer different sized pitches, different surface choices, EHU or not etc, for varying prices...we were at one such site this week...sometimes this could work for us...but, as PD says, not with the club which has decided on its course of more of the same.

other than MH waste points (again, as TTDA mentions, some of these aren't particularly easy to get onto and keep roadways free for others) can anyone say what the club does now to be more in tune with motorhoming than it did prior to the name change?

a quick trawl of motorhoming sites like MHFUN would give the Club hierarchy loads of clues as to why CAMC isn't popular with FUN members...

I’ve never really had an issue with the re naming, I suppose we already knew that the Club was more than just towed caravans, but there might well have been those who didn’t know.
Not quite sure why some get very defensive about the name change, unless they blame the influx of MHs taking up pitches on it🤷‍♀️ All I can say is if a business chooses to exclude, then it either has to be operating in a very high end market, or is committing business suicide. The Club isn’t doing either.
It used to be very picky around outfits, and the Membership did have a fair proportion of snobs who looked askance at anything not brand new, big and shiny, but those days are long gone thankfully. Now it’s the old and quaint that attract the attention, and add a bit of interest amongst the shiny plastic😁

I've just found a copy of the article and magazine and it's not really clear but after a couple of re-reads I believe it is saying that in 2018 (was that the rebrand?) caravans and MHs were in almost equal measure but now the ratio of motorhomes : caravans is now 2:1, in other word two thirds MHs.

...from an even split between motorhome/campervans owners and caravan owners in 2018 to nearly a 2:1 ratio now.

If I have read that right that further reinforces my point made above. To go from parity to this is a significant/great (choose as you think appropriate) achievement and shows that the club for all the 'issues' given by others posters is attracting a lot of MHs for both membership and on sites, again it appears to be hitting a sweet spot for a lot of people

Also some other interesting figures, the club currently has the largest club membership ever with 382,000 member's household, I'm not sure what that means but it's the most club members ever. And if true tow thirds of those will be MH household? 

Also it says that MH/campervans have an older age range (I assume compared to caravans) and less likely to take children with them, also they tend to move around more and take more shorter UK breaks over more months of the year and are twice as likely to travel overseas.

And over 200,000 has downloaded the mobile app and 1.3m nights booked.

I'm just putting the above in out of interest and not making any comments about it either way.

The rest of the article, it was the club council report for 2022, is good reading with very healthy figures for accounts and money spent on sites.  

Crikey, I didn’t know that there were now more MHs than caravans, but it’s a long time since we stayed a long time on a Club Site. I would concur with the age range though. More disposable income for initial purchase, less requirement for extra berths, more time to get away, a lot easier if you choose to set up and pack up, so that tackles the lifting and handling and mobility side of things that can put some off caravanning. Anyone coming to it new isn’t going to baulk as much at the prices for Club Sites either. If you weren’t around when it used to be a tenner a night, then £40 might compare nicely with a B&B or a cottage.

It’s old lags that were spoilt like us that find the prices a bit “how much😱”🤣

Good point about the site costs, especially with all the shiny new MH/campervans on site. Very few below 2018 plates I've noticed. 

😁 Lag, captive to the touring lifestyle, nothing unlawful😁

"Also it says that MH/campervans have an older age range (I assume compared to caravans) and less likely to take children with them, also they tend to move around more and take more shorter UK breaks over more months of the year and are twice as likely to travel overseas."

If the club 'understands' these snippets of info re MH owners, I wonder what changes to the offering they're making to synchronise with these behaviours?

less kids, move on more often, more but shorter breaks, better understanding from abroad about what MH 'heaven' is all about.....

all these things, which have been mentioned many times, highlight the differences in the way MHers tour when (in general) compared to caravanners.

...surely they need, less space (less kids), smaller, cheaper, fast turnaround pitches and top notch MHSP which cause no impact to others. They haven't mentioned EHU but stopping for just a night or two reduces greatly that requirement.

im not sure the change in ratio of those visiting the club is a 'great achievement', it may just be that the same folk are heading back to the same club sites but in their new MH having swapped from a caravan...?..

Club members who migrate from caravan to motorhome or campervan may still go to a site for security, but I see motorhomes overnight at pubs, garden centres, certain car parks, and quiet places out on the moor,. There are many options for them - almost like France and NewZealand - and for many that’s the attraction. 
One of our grand daughters has a new boy friend who has part converted a second hand British Gas van. They don’t go to Club sites either.

I don’t think the Club are doing that much wrong to be honest, just re positioning themselves in a difficult market, trying to capture as much of the disposable income as they can, and looking at new customers, rather than catering primarily for what they have in terms of Members. It only grates with us because we paid a Membership fee for the old no deposits, shorter should you need to cancel system, which was good given our personal circumstances (we only had to cancel once), but it’s still worth it to us for the CLs. Deposits aren’t a problem, we pay those for cottages, etc…
I will say though that the Club isn’t very good re communications to its Members, and there can be a deal of “spin” and silence around trying to get decent answers to some queries. The new booking system launch was a tech and communications disaster, and given all the special offers, changing of some T&C’s, they don’t appear to have hit all their possible projected pitch take up. Customers like clarity, and all these changing prices, special offers, time limited sales need a bit of wading through. 

I have no doubts, many will be happy still with the Club, despite the name change, despite the price increases, despite the new T&C’s. For others, like us, it’s a big market if you want to shop around.